Sunday, October 19, 2008

A Gallup poll conducted in December of last year indicates that a majority of America's plebiscite would be O.K. with a gay President. But according to polls on same-sex marriage, the country would not allow that President to be married to his own sex. Make sense? No. But then the Christian Right who spearheads hate in this country is not about to make sense where (their) morals are concerned.

The same Gallup poll also tells us more than just who would vote for who. It also gives us a glimpse of dyed-in-the-wool haters:

4% hate Catholics (John Hagee alone is large enough to account for that figure)5% are racist(that's an awful lot of single-wides!)6% are anti-Semitic (excluding, of course, Mel Gibson)12% are sexist (but only "The Good Ole Boys")12% are anti-Hispanic (unless you know B**h - he speaks Spanish!)17% are anti-Mormon (Mitt Romney thought it was higher)41% are homophobic (but they can't all look like Rod Parsley)48% are anti-atheist(there goes Christopher Hitchens' bid for the White House!)

O.K., so "haters" may have a margin of error since some might simply think that a person of a particular race or religion could not be qualified. But think again: there are people who hate ALL or most of the above. Is it possible that up to 4% of Americans are neo-Nazis, skinheads or Grand Wizards of some sort? Or are they people who hate everyone except white American Christian heterosexual males?

It's possible. It's scary. The portrait painted by this figure would mean that up to 12 million Americans are very dangerous people. And since hate breeds stupidity, they are also extremely stupid. The poll also gives us an indication of how many self-described Christians are anti-Mormon, anti-gay and anti-atheist (the last is a dead giveaway). And when you think of Fundamentalists, try to think of the person they WOULD vote for. Southern Baptists? Reconstructionists? Assemblies of God? Nope, I didn't think so.

Another significant demographic: 24% of Americans believe that their religion is the "one true faith" (Pew Research). How many of those "Christians" look with contempt (if not outright hatred) on other religions or sects? How many have morphed into neo-Nazis?

It's too bad Gallup can't give us a more accurate picture of religious intolerance. The figures we have now will have to do. It's a puzzle; but one worth solving.

They have nothing to lose. Unless you count their integrity. McCain, maybe. Palin, naaaah! I saw her last night on Saturday Night Live. SNL did well, considering they were, in essence, hosting Governor Palin. I really don't think she knew exactly what was going on. The Alec Baldwin bit was one of the best indirect digs I've seen lately. And his reaction to finding out who she really was was priceless because it was the same as the heads of state she was introduced to ("she's gorgeous!"). The Update's caricature of Todd Palin was something that must have caught her off guard.

Of course, she has other things to think about - like ACORN. Watch her work it into an Obama smear right up there with "pals around with terrorists."

ACORN officials have repeatedly claimed that their own quality control workers were the first to discover problematic ballots. In every state investigating bad registrations, ACORN tipped off local officials to bogus or incomplete cards, spokesman Kettenring said.

O.K., those are only the top 4. The other two hundred are just a bit too hard to swallow. Does Sarah Palin herself count as a smear? She uses smear tactics - enough to cover most of Washington, but I think she's comes in second to Ann Coulter(geist). If Obama is elected, Coulter will have a field day along with enough half-truths and lies to set her up for the rest of her life. But she would never retire: she has too many people to "perfect."

One Washington Post comment on Sarah Palin's smear campaign:

The problem is not unvarnished truth, but thinly varnished hatred.

As she proved in her speeches accepting John McCain's and her party's nominations, Governor Palin is a person with acute skills of self-expression. She knows exactly what response - and what bigotry - she will elicit when she denigrates the concept of a "community organizer."

The next two weeks will still be as the public wishes them to be: entertaining.

"There are certainly problems and I don't think anyone disagrees on that," said Wang of Common Cause. "But it doesn't get reported that ACORN finds these registrations errors themselves. They flag them as being no good, but they have to turn them in anyway."

"They don't get processed," she said. "And Mickey Mouse is not going to vote."

True, but Mickey Mouse might GET votes...along with Bullwinkle. Such is today's mentality of the Right.